Television: The Mass Tasteland

Evening. A darkened room. Figures huddle
close together. There is a sudden flash, a great white ball of light.
Then a wavy line. Then a dot. Then nothing.

"I feel like someone is
dead."

The occasion is not an atomic disaster, but the breakdown of the
family television set in prime time. The pitiful line about someone
being dead was actually spoken to an interviewer on television viewing
habits, along with such others as, "I nearly lost my mind. The days
were so long," and "It was terrible. We did nothing. My husband...